Perhaps America’s most infamous town, Salem, Massachusetts has been immortalized in books, movies, and plays, forever inextricably linked with the tragic witch trials that took place there in the late 17th century.
More than 300 years later, Salem is now a hotspot for tourists, especially in fall, when long October nights stir thoughts of the supernatural. But how much of Salem’s spooky lore is actually true, and what other secrets does the historic New England town hold?
Read on as we reveal 18 secrets of Salem's past...
Salem was settled in 1626 by Roger Conant, an Englishman from the nearby Plymouth Colony. Over the course of 10 years, the settlement attracted more colonists, who established a church, built a fort, and convened a militia for warding off the local Indigenous people.
Like many New England settlements of the time, Salem was a coastal community and came to rely heavily on seaport trading, while more local industries such as fishing and farming sustained its population.
Religious unrest in Salem began in 1658 when six Quakers were put to trial for "disorderly conduct" – a thin veil for religious persecution. However, it was not until 1692 that the real religiously charged turmoil began.
When two young girls, the daughter and niece of a minister in Salem Village (now the town of Danvers) began experiencing strange seizures, locals believed the devil was to blame. Within weeks, neighbor turned on neighbor, with accusations of witchcraft flying across the region.
As witch-finding fever broke out across Salem, innocent men and women were accused, imprisoned, and tried by the dozen, most often with no evidence beyond hearsay and often wild fabrications.
The trials and hangings took place in the heart of Salem Town, where the first victim, Bridget Bishop, was a resident. By the time the mania ended nearly a full year later, 20 more innocent people had been executed for witchcraft (19 hanged and one pressed to death), while countless more had been accused, shunned, and even driven out of town.
While the witch trials only lasted for a period of about 11 months – a relatively brief chapter in Salem’s history – they captured public imagination and urban myth in an overwhelmingly enduring way. The historic event has been immortalized in numerous books, movies, TV series, and, perhaps most famously, in Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible.
Today, some of the most famous landmarks associated with the trials are now popular tourist attractions, and the entire town leans in hard to its "witchy" heritage, particularly around Halloween.
The Jonathan Corwin House, also known as the Witch House, is the only remaining structure in the town with direct ties to the witch trials. Corwin, who was the heir to one of the largest Puritan fortunes in New England, purchased the house in 1675, just a few years before he would serve as a judge throughout the witch trials.
Although many believed that witness questioning during the trials actually took place at the property, there is no historical evidence to support this claim.
Another sinister-looking residence, the House of the Seven Gables served as the inspiration for author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1851 Gothic novel of the same name.
In the novel, the Seven Gables is built on property belonging to a man falsely accused of witchcraft by the greedy man who wanted his land. Hawthorne himself had personal ties to the house, which was once the residence of his great-great-grandfather, John Hathorne (who omitted the 'w' to distance himself from the family legacy), a prominent judge in the Salem witch trials. Understandably, both the fictional and factual houses are believed to be cursed…
If you want to step deeper into Nathaniel Hawthorne’s dark imagination, take an evening stroll into Salem Woods, where some scenes of one of his darkest short stories, The Crucible, is set.
Alternatively, the woods make a lovely location for an afternoon hike. In fall, beautiful foliage shows off the leafy canopy to its best advantage.
Now part of the famous Peabody Essex Museum, this stately townhouse hides a grisly secret from 1830. The Gardner-Pingree House, designed by master architect Samuel McIntire, was once the residence of wealthy sea captain Joseph White. White was not well-liked in Salem, with a dubious reputation that included participation in an illegal slave trade.
However, it was not until White disinherited his niece that her new husband, Joe Knapp, together with his brother Frank, hired Richard Crowninshield to assassinate White in his bed. The ensuing court case and double hanging was described as the “trial of the century,” and influenced both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. Crowninshield took his life before he was brought to trial.
A subtle memorial, Proctor’s Ledge is the very spot where 19 Salem residents were hanged between July and September 1692. Bodies were then dropped into a mass grave, which was not permitted to be marked in any way. For centuries, people believed that the execution site was the nearby and aptly named Gallows Hill.
However, today, the stone wall bears the names of the 19 victims who were hanged here, engraved on individual stone plaques.
The Old Burying Point Cemetery, established in 1637, is the oldest of eight graveyards in Salem, and one of the first in the country. There are no graves of Salem residents accused of and executed for witchcraft, because they were denied Christian burials.
However, the tombstones of two judges who oversaw the trials, John Hathorne and Bartholomew Gidney, can be found here
Now technically located in the town of Danvers, though considered Salem at the time of its construction, this 1678 saltbox property is the only home of an executed witch trial victim that is open to the public today, and the only confirmed burial site of any person executed in the trials.
An upstanding member of the Puritan community and hardworking mistress of her family farm, Rebecca Nurse was one of the witch craze’s most surprising casualties. Today, her homestead functions as a museum, and includes a recreation of the Salem Village Meeting House, where early witchcraft hearings occurred.
Another piece of spooky but non-witchy history takes us to the Salem Inn, where room W17 is believed to be haunted. Known as “the haunted room,” W17 is apparently the site of regular strange and seemingly supernatural occurrences, including shadows with no discernible source, and objects moving by themselves.
Of course, this may be explained by the fact that at least three ghosts are rumored to haunt the inn and its grounds.
Perhaps Salem’s most popular tourist destination, the Salem Witch Museum sits in the center of town, just across from the common. With its dramatic Gothic Revival architecture, the building looks more like a cathedral than a museum – making it hard to miss.
Open year-round, the museum is dedicated not only to the history of the 1692 witch trials, but also to the events that led up to them and the broader cultural forces that shaped them. A second exhibit offers a deeper exploration of the concept of the witch, tracing its origins in European folklore.
Any fans of US sitcom Bewitched will definitely want to check out the six-foot bronze statue of lead character Samantha Stephens in downtown Salem. Not many people know that several episodes of the popular series were actually filmed on location in Salem, after the Hollywood sets for the city were destroyed in a fire.
In one episode from the show, Samantha and husband Darrin actually take a tour of the House of the Seven Gables, and an enchanted bed warmer decides to follow Samantha around.
Tucked away behind the Old Burying Point Cemetery, this simple yet powerful stone wall serves as the official memorial to the witch trial victims. Visitors often leave tributes such as flowers, notes, and even coins.
Granite benches set into the wall bear the names of each of the 20 victims, as well as their method of execution and the date of their death. Perhaps the most striking is the stone threshold at the entrance, carved with the final words of the accused, taken directly from the trial transcripts.
However, despite its dark past and the tragic events of the witch trials, Salem has spent the last century transforming its reputation – leaning into its witchy history and becoming something of a mecca for Halloween fans.
During spooky season, entire busloads of tourists line up for hours for the chance to tour the Witch House or visit the Salem Witch Museum. Residents, too, get into the spirit, decorating their homes with elaborate Halloween displays like the one pictured here.
Each October, Salem hosts an official month-long celebration known as Haunted Happenings, featuring a packed schedule of festivities. Events include ghost tours, film screenings, psychic readings, live theater performances, costume parades, haunted harbor cruises, and the spectacular Halloween Ball at the historic Hawthorne Hotel.
Of course, the best thing to do during Haunted Happenings is to simply sit back and people watch – the costumes are always striking.
When Haunted Happenings was first held in 1982, it drew a crowd of about 50,000 people over the course of the event. Today, the city estimates that more than half a million people flock there each October – a huge boost for the local economy.
In fact, Salem now has one of the highest concentrations of witchcraft- and magic-themed shops in the US, many of which do booming business during the Halloween season.